As academia became my identity, my fascination with firefighters became buried and, seemingly, died.

I didn't let what I wanted to do become a made up memory that I looked back on years down the road and wished it was real.

Honestly, if I stay on this gruelling path, I'm going to end up as another suicide statistic.

I must have appeared like a real bad boy in Christy's eyes. Well, at least a bad boy by home and away standards.

It wasn't a glorious or grand act of misadventure but it was a start. It wasn't what I should have done but it was what I truly wanted to do.

A fight needs at least two fighters. Sometimes you can win straight away by not fighting.

Someone who lives vicariously will never be truly happy because they're not happy with themselves.

If you're not happy with yourself, how can you even begin to figure out if another person makes you happy, annoyed, angry, sad and so on.

This is your chance. Are you going to cower and make excuses or are you going to do what you really want to do?

It seemed, at that point, my greed and cunningness were being rewarded.

She'd been fed anti-consumerist bullshit by her parents but didn't understand simple economics.

Inability to accept positive change is a hindrance to growth.

Buildings in modern cities have lost their metaphoric aspect. Much contemporary architecture is very fragmented and busy on the outside. It's like a skin or a skull, but you don't know what's inside.

I got my MBA at Burberry, but I will get my PhD at Apple.

Stand up, be counted. We have the numbers.

Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory.

Send her a quick note while you're stuck in a long meeting. A lighthearted chat definitely makes the time go faster.

You have to maintain a culture of transformation and stay true to your values.

In a thousand unseen ways we have drawn shape and strength from the land.

rhetoric is will doing the work of imagination.